Of Authors, Books and Fuinjutsu
by Hermionechan90
Summary: After the war a bitter and disillusioned Hermione decides to move to the pocket dimension called Elemental countries. Watch how certain Konoha shinobi change the course of her live.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**England**

Great Britain, what a loaded name, home of 60 million non magical people. Ruled by a queen, loved by the majority of its' residents and absolutely abhorred by one Hermione Granger.

That hadn't been always so, her disgust wasn't for the land or even for the bad weather, no she hated the isles for its' magical community. The British community had learned absolutely NOTHING of the last war. The war that had cost Hermione her closest friends and her family had also left her devastated, bitter and alone.

It only took 4 months and five days for the magical community to go back to their old ways of slander, bigotry and embezzlement. Their favorite phrase "Why fix it when it's not broken?" being whispered through the halls of the British Ministry of Magic.

But it was broken, there was no way around it! The fundamental legislation of the British Wizarding world, that should guarantee the protection and rightful punishment of its' citizens was partially shattered under the feet of the sheep and the parts that weren't, were so damnable twisted that the so called law suppressed the rights of the innocent while those that were rich enough stayed in power and remained blameless.

Hermione just couldn't take it anymore, she was tried, frustrated and bitter she didn't have the strength to fight against the bigotry and outrageous corruption and frankly she didn't want to.

The bushy haired young woman had enough, should somebody else deal with their next dark lord, because there would be another and after that another until finally somebody fixed this damn system or the whole community was left in shambles of their own stupidity.

**Elemental Nations**

The first time Hermione had read about the Elemental Nations was while she was researching in a book called '_Shield magic and what can go wrong'_ for Harry's first task during the Triwizard Tournament.  
The Elemental nations were a pocket dimension of this world and only accessible through a tightly secured entrance in the Tokyo region. It was cited as THE most prominent still existing but failed artificial dimension creation since Atlantis.

It was rumored to be the most extensive work of rune magic ever created. The man who had designed the rune arc had learned from the mistakes of the Atlantians and was smart enough to put extensive shields around the pocket dimension. They were powered by the natural magic of the world outside it, he so prevented the collapse of the Elemental countries, like it had happened in Atlantis. The problem was that thanks to the natural magic, the soil and vegetation inside the artificial dimension became so saturated with it that it changed the people and creatures inside the dimension.

The author of the book, that the 15 year old Hermione read at that time, was quite disapproving of the man called Fukudo Ichirou, who was later called by the honorary title of Rikudo Sennin, the Sage of the Six Paths.

During a time of unrest and war in Japan he had lead nearly fifteen hundred people in the pocket dimension, approximately 500 of them had been wizards and witches and consequently the magic inside the dimension slowly changed their physical make up. The magical ones lost their ability to use a focus while the muggles hadn't felt any adverse effects but gained a stronger immune system and some of them showed inhuman strength and speed, the children that had been born since the different settlements had been established where born with strangely vibrant hair colors.

Because of the loss of their powers the former wizards and witches instigated a civil war between the people of the Elemental countries and it was during this time that the ninja and samurai clans started to bloom everywhere; protection and assassins were in high demand.

It took Ichirou nearly 15 years to unlock his changed magic and abilities, to be able to differentiate between the old magic and this new power, that he called it chakra.  
Because Ichirou felt it was his fault that the new land was war torn and everywhere blood was spilled he travelled through the continent and spread his knowledge about chakra to mollify the former magic users and stop the fighting.

At first it helped and the fights became fewer and fewer but with time some of the former wizards became greedy and wanted more power and decided to tap directly into the nature chakra just like the Rikudo Sennin could do it, only to oversee a critical fact. Fukudo Ichirou had tattooed hundreds of different runes on his body to prevent his death while creating the dimension. It stopped his body from being overwhelmed of the chakra or to draw to much in one go.

The nine wizards of varying strength had created a rune circle and drew raw chakra directly into themselves. They were overwhelmed with the nature chakra and their bodies and souls were twisted together until there was only one beast with ten tails left. This beast rampaged through the land and destroyed everything in its way.

Unable to find a way to kill it, Ichirou finally sealed it into his body and later detangled the nine souls and consequently their power to make them more easily to control and handle for the people in his dimension.  
Before he died he wrote down his history and a warning and hid it at the gateway to the original world, he did this to warn other wizards from the effects of entering the Elemental countries.  
For a long time it had been forbidden to travel into the Elementals out of worry that the condition could be contagious, until various governments around the world had experimented with the effects on magical prisoners that they had entered against their will and had finally concluded that it took at least a year to change the magical core permanently into chakra and that a prolonged stay outside it could reverse the effects to some point, but they had still cautioned their people from entering Fukudo Ichirou's so called failed experiment.  
The Japanese magical government took care of the protection of the gateway and kept taps on the happenings inside of the dimension to this day.

To be honest the Elemental countries didn't even cross Hermione's mind when she converted all her money and the money that she had inherited from Harry from galleons into gold, jewelry and precious gems. She had planned a world tour to take her mind of the war and after that to settle in the Muggle world.

And exactly that was what she did for two months until she met a rune master in Sweden by the name of Astrid Dalgaard, the forty something woman was sarcastic, quick minded and blunt. She badgered Hermione so long until she broke down and told her about how fucked up her live had become.  
The British witch poured her heart out to a total stranger that had sat down on her table on a whim.

At the end of the night Astrid said "Shit happens, I know this sounds swallow and doesn't help you at the moment but believe me, even if it doesn't go away completely it will get better, but you have to start to move on."

Hermione cancelled her portkey on the next day and extended her stay for another week.  
In the end she stayed for three and a half years to study runes and become a master.

Concerning her mental state, Astrid hadn't been right, it didn't get better, she just knew how to not think about it and when the loneliness got too much, how to numb herself sufficiently.

**Departure**

"And you are sure?"

"Yes, Astrid I am,…" Hermione rolled her eyes, she had been asked this time and time again, yes she was sure.

"I still can't believe you, your magic will never be the same, even if you decide to come back, you will be no different than a muggle."

"I know,…"

These arguments had been going on for weeks now and frankly Hermione was tired of them, yes she had gone over the repercussions, to be honest she had been playing with that particular thought for over half a year long before she had told Astrid.  
Hermione had decided to leave this world and explore the Elemental countries.

She had completed her mastery of runes and while she loved her quirky master and really didn't want her distressed she had decided to leave this world behind. She did this to start fresh in a world where nobody knew her name or her dead friends. And so what if it would cost her, her magic? That didn't matter, MAGIC didn't matter to her, she hadn't used her wand in over a year. The runes she used could be powered through channeling her magic into her fingers and touching them and this wouldn't change in the Elemental countries thanks to chakra and the rest; cleaning, cooking and washing? Please she had grown up as a muggle, menial tasks were her smallest problem. And the occasional potion? A wand was only needed for the most complicated ones, and those she didn't need. And finally transportation, she had a car and for the longer distances she had no problem in using an airplane. No she wouldn't miss her magic, not one bit!  
With a final air surrounding her she closed her last suitcase and then put it on the runic belt to be sealed.

Turning around her eyes soften "Astrid, you know that you are very dear to me but I have to do this. The world and especially MAGIC constricts me. I want to start over, to begin new. These 3 years in Sweden have helped me, you have helped me, but I have this strong urge to go to the Elementals, to forget magic, I'm done with denying my gut instinct, it has proven to be right again and again… I'm sorry, please don't be mad."

Hermione sighed at the last sentence and hugged the trembling older woman with tears in her eyes.  
She knew it was cold to leave her mentor like that and to most likely never see her again but she was determined.  
Hermione took the next flight to Tokyo, with only hand luggage and her belt.

The runic belt had been of her first creations. On the outside it was just a thick black silk belt that went around her waist with a big bronze buckle with an intricate muster on it, an accessory that many women wore today but it was far from being only that.  
The small carvings were actually runes for protection, durability, anti-theft and repair. It had been quite the chore to explain to the muggle blacksmith what she wanted and how it had to be placed, and it hadn't been cheap either but oh SO worth it.  
The first belt she had ever created had been out of brown leather and it had been okay at that time because she didn't really need it for her daily life, but now that she would go into the Elementals? That was a whole different can of worms.

Because Hermione was planning on entering a dimension with an Asian culture and live there for the rest of her life, she had to be able to blend in with the populace.  
For that purpose she had spent a big amount of gold that Harry had bequeathed to her on an universal language potion that would enhance the speed in which she picked up the language pattern as well as an identity theft potion.

After her arrival in Japan she informed herself about the security that was placed around the Elemental countries entrance. It was laughable, only one wizard per shift and that person slept most of the time or read the newspaper or did something else than guarding the entrance.

Hermione spent a week in Tokyo changing a part of her gold into jewels again and bought hundreds of books from different categories that weren't published in the Elemental Countries.

When she was finally ready she sealed everything into her rune belt and put on hiking boots, a durable pair of jeans as well as several different layers to peal herself out of it. Really it was just sensible to wear clothes in which she could sneak around in, as well as Harry's invisible cloak.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**New Beginnings**

To be honest the trip through the portal was totally boring, a little tingle on her skin, a little bit of bright light and she was standing inside a cave with Japanese writing and runes on it.

After she exited the cave she breathed in the clear summer night air and looked around the entrance, far away she could see the lights of a village or town. That would be her first stop on the next day. Tired she unsealed her sleeping bag, put up some protection runes and fell asleep at the cave entrance.

**New identity **

After nearly two weeks of careful searching Hermione finally found the perfect new identity in Yamaguchi Hisana. The young woman was the only survivor of a small town in the mountains of Bird Country that was dying on her fatal injuries.

While Hermione normally detested the mind arts, they came in handy in this situation. She copied the memories of Hisana during a short visit in the hospital, as well as extracted a blood and hair sample.

Hisana was 19 years old and the daughter of a relatively well off merchant, she had been spoilt rotten in her live, had live in tutors and everything that she could wish for. Before the earth quake hit that had destroyed her home village her father had been in progress of negotiating her marriage with the son of the black smith, the second richest man in their little town.  
Hisana was well educated, she could play the ukele and the pan flute and was also instructed in the politics of the Elemental nations, primarily in that of Bird and Earth country. Really her education standard was more that of a minor princess or samurai daughter than that of a merchant daughter.  
Hermione planted the memories of Hisana's life inside herself but kept it separate for the time being.

It was easy to put the civilian doctors and nurses of the small hospital under a time delayed memory charm and a separate compulsion that would end the moment Hisana died. The compulsion arranged that although the medical personnel recognized the dying of Hisana and gave her the medications to make her comfortable, they would write down things about her slow recovery. This would solidify her identity should anybody dig into her past.  
It took the original Hisana nearly two weeks to die. In that time Hermione went over the memories and enhanced those that she wanted to keep and intermingled them with her original character.

**The Transformation**

Wizards and witches were warned from tempering with their own minds, it could cause fatal personality shifts or complete loss of the memory but Hermione was determined. She would start over new as Yamaguchi Hisana a blend of the bitter British witch Hermione Granger and the spoiled original Yamaguchi Hisana of Bird Country.

But before she could start with the creation of her new personality, she created a back up copy of both original minds, so that she could adjust her personality should she ever need it.  
She kept the knowledge about potions, the body, first aid, runes, what wizards had found out about the Elemental countries, the knowledge about tactics used in the wizard war as well as how to deal with the more shady characters of the underworld from her life as Hermione Granger and blended it with the education in manners, politics and instruments as well as the ability to ride horses of the Yamaguchi daughter. Hermione also took Hisana's ability to manipulate people around her to do her biding, the British witch had had a hard time with that in her previous life.

Hermione decided to suppress most of her original memories and take on the happier ones of Hisana. With that came also the deep understanding of the Bird Country culture and the Asian culture in general, this would have normally taken her a life time to understand.  
This enhancing and suppressing of memories and abilities changed the personality of the still witch. To put it simple she became a lady with a hidden darker personality that could deal with the seedier aspects of life, she had manners, knowledge and a razor sharp intellect. Hisana was also shrewd enough to change a situation to her advantage while not being too jaded.  
The tampering took Hermione less than a day, while the effects on her mind had her out of commission for nearly five days.

After she awoke in her little secret hideaway she was nearly too weak to move and it took her a day and two nutritional potions to strengthen her body for the final change, the physical change.  
Hisana heated up the identity theft potion that she had bought on the black marked of Tokyo, it had cost her nearly one fourth of the Potter wealth. She poured the blood and the hair into it. On the morning of the 9th day after the original Hisana's committal to the Mountain hospital her double came to live.

Hisana 0.2 as the witch called herself sarcastically was in agony. She had had a vague idea what to expect thanks to the polyjuice potion in her second year, but this couldn't compare, the pain was unbelievable, she was on the brink of insanity when it finally stopped and she was able to catch her breath.

It took her the remaining three days to recover enough to use magic again and sneak into the hospital. She barely made it in time for Hisana to die. Thankfully she had hit the woman with a monitor charm that warned her when she was on the brink of death.  
She changed the dead body into a stone and threw it out of the window into the garden. The natural chakra around them would hold the transfiguration for up to three weeks. That should be enough to be released and to find a proper burial side for the Original.

**Establishing one's self**

One of the disadvantages of being the only heiress to a merchant fortune were the greedy enviers. The moment it became clear that she was recovering, a message was sent out to the nearest business partner of Hisana's father as well as messages to other business partners. Thankfully the nearest located business partner was an elderly man with a soft spot for females. Hisana could remember that her father had brought her along a few times while she was a child and later in her teens. Yamaguchi Hisei had approved of the honorable merchant and had not been afraid to leave his only child in said man's care.

Tesuo-dono had her packed up and transported to his residence as soon as she was able to. He was also the one who had sorted out the paperwork as well as the marriage proposals that came in masses after the knowledge of her father's death circulated in the social circles.  
Hisana had only to prove her heritage via blood test in the capital (thank god the identity potion changed her completely down to the last cell) and then decide what she wanted to do now that her father and fiancé were dead.

Having learned more about the kind older man and also his nephew, who would take over the family after Tesuo-dono's death. Hisana sold the goods and trading routes to them, keeping only enough percentages in the business so that she could life a comfortable life on that alone.

**Freedom and Grief**

5 months after arriving in Tesuo-dono's household she started her journey through the Elemental Countries. While the old merchant, didn't want to see her leave Tesuo-dono couldn't stop her because she was a legal adult with enough means to life on her own. Hisana left with the promise of frequent visits and letters to the family.

Hisana arrived after nearly a week of travel in a caravan back in the capital of Bird Country, Torika. The city with it's never ending streets and bustling population had attracted Hisana from the moment she moved passed the main gates.  
There, finally relieved that she was free, she spent nearly a month on a drinking binge with quite a lot of different bed partners. Hisana's body had still been virginal when she took the identity potion. The civilian war survivor had rectified this the moment she was out of the reach of Tesuo-dono.  
During this time she mourned her dead loved ones both old and new and finally after nearly four years of just going through the motions she started to heal.

Hisana enjoyed her new freedom with expensive spa trips and long educational journeys through Tori no Kuni and the bordering countries. After three months of doing nothing but living she finally began to translate some of the books she had brought from the Outer world.  
Back in Bird Country Hisana found herself a publicist, a serve older man with a keen sense for business. She left everything in his hands only concentrating on writing and enjoying her new life.

**Old Passions and final Changes**

During her travels she picked up vast amounts of books on every topic as well as antiquities and even jewelry. It often were the second hand shops that would to sell her the odd gem for her fast growing collections, she even bought jutsu scrolls and kenjutsu instruction manuals when she was in a particular mood.  
With time Hisana learned about the books that were considered rare, lost or a fable. In Hisana an old part of Hermione woke up, the part that had coveted written knowledge like no other and so the habit of buying books turned back into a long forgotten passion for knowledge and history.  
The books and jutsu scrolls were sent back to Bird Country where she rented a house for herself. This house was now overflowing with old tomes, boxes filled to the brim with scrolls weren't even unpacked they were just left in some of the empty rooms and her antiquities just stood where she had space. And the collection was still growing.

Hisana lamented the fact that she couldn't carry all the books on her person. It would have cost an immense sum and would have attracted unwanted attention from bandits and the likes. She also couldn't use her Rune belt anymore to store them there. In the months following her entrance into the Elemental countries she had to concentrate more and more on making it work, until she had finally given up and stored her treasurers and books in different hideaways throughout the Elemental countries.

Her magic using capabilities got steadily worse until 14 months into her new life; Hisana couldn't use even the simplest levitation charm anymore. Funnily enough Legilimency and Occlumency didn't seem to fall under this restriction.

While the witch Hermione had been disgusted und uncomfortable with using it, her new personality didn't have these qualms. And after this particularly skill had saved her from falling into the hands of a slave trader, even the last discomfort vanished and she started to use it more regularly. Most of the time she just kept to the surface thoughts of her vis-a-vis, so that she was not overwhelmed, while she was still able to keep an eye out for potential dangers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Jiraiya**

The first time Hisana stumbled over that particular ninja was in Fuku Gai, during her stay at an expensive spa resort. She had just entered the women only spring when she heard the perverted giggling behind the fence. Annoyed and in an already bad mood, Hisana had neither the patience nor the strength to deal with the pervert that was peeking on her.  
So she just stood up and flashed the man behind the fence. Hopefully that would cut the annoying peeking short so that she could bath in peace.

The next thing that she heard was a thumb against the fence. With a satisfied smile she sat back down again and enjoyed the water that loosened her muscles. An hour later she decided to leave the spring but not before she threw a glance over the fence. On the ground was an unconscious white haired man with dried blood on his nose.

Hisana found it amusing that thanks to the strong chakra flow in the dimension, the human males especially the stronger shinobi, were quite capable of having a spurting nose bleed and pass out from the overstimulation. It reminded her of those Japanese mangas she had read before coming here.

Smug as a cat that got the cream she left the bath house and used the rest of the afternoon to go over her notes for her newest children book.  
In the evening, having enough from sitting around, she left her room to find herself a place to eat. While she strolled through the streets she recognized the white mane of hair that belonged to the pervert from before. Feeling particularly vindictive and brash she changed her direction and strolled into the small restaurant.

She surprised the white haired man by sitting down across from him and taking him in while he ate his noodles. Hisana had to hand it to him, he didn't squirm,… too much, before she finally caved and started a conversation.

"How was the view?" she drawled out while she watched him joke on his soba.

He hacked and hmmed for a while before he sent her a good natured grin and wiggled with his eyebrows.

"Magnificent."

Hisana snorted and ordered a Bento Box from the waiter that had hurried over to their table.

The middle aged perverted introduced himself as Jiraiya of the Sannin, a ninja of Konoha and avid porn writer. He seemed fascinated with Hisana, even more so after she revealed that she was a fellow writer. The witch turned Elemental citizen couldn't hold this against him, from what she had seen in the last three years of her travelling the civilian women in this lands where mostly simpering creatures with only a few shining gems in between them.

The kunoichi population on the other side was the exact opposite. They were strong, confident and not afraid of giving their opinion and so Hisana felt more kinship with them than their civilian counterparts. Unfortunately they came across to strong most of the time and so turned a lot of potential partners, even fellow ninja away.

The fellow across from her seemed to be quiet interesting and friendly but you never know and so her paranoid side urged her to take a closer look at his mind.

Hisana noted the unconsciously erected barriers around topics like Konoha and Naruto. But overall the ninja seemed to be friendly enough and there were no malicious thoughts near the surface or towards her person. With her quick scan finished Hisana relaxed back into her seat.

Surprisingly enough Hisana enjoyed the conversation with the man who could easily be her father. They discussed quite a variety of subjects and for the first time in two years she was thoroughly intellectual challenged.  
Now she was glad that she had invested the first year to completely solidify her new identity and familiarize herself with the allies and old business partners of her father and also with the political climate in the different countries, it made the debate a lot more stimulation.  
The man in front of her was more than a pervert and she realized that she enjoyed listening to him while he talked about various objects. It also didn't hurt that Jiraiya was quite the amazing story teller and could describe landscapes and adventures so vividly that she could see them coming to life in front of her inner eye.

Jiraiya left three days later but before he left they exchanged their published works and also made a promise of staying in touch. He left her with an address in Konoha while she told him to write her publisher in Bird Country.

Leaving the town in a good mood Hisana really had absolutely NO idea what she just set in motion and how it would affect her life in the coming years.

**Jiraiya's Thoughts**

On his way back to Konoha Jiraiya mulled over his bizarre meeting in Fuku Gai, and hadn't that been a surprise.  
Yamaguchi Hisana was an enigma, he couldn't remember having ever such a sharp minded CIVILIAN interlocutor and a young woman at that, hell she was barely 21.

Because that was what she was, a civilian. During their conversation he had touched her harm to test her chakra system and while it was slightly larger than normal in a civilian it was still completely untrained. No wear or tear in the chakra coils like it would have been had she trained since she was a child to use her chakra.

She also was she too unguarded for being a ninja. She wasn't paranoid of her position and exits like a ninja would be. He had tested that too, during lunch of the second day he had manipulated her into the seat that was the most vulnerable in the whole restaurant and she hadn't batted an eyelash before sitting down.

Still there was something darker about her. Jiraiya speculated that something had to have happened to her because even if she tried to gloss it over she was wary of being completely alone with him and always steered them back to the more populated streets, away from dark and potentially dangerous corners.  
She also jumped at loud noises that she hadn't anticipated and was quite skittish after those events.  
It was most curious; he would have to look what his network could find about her.

**Fuinjutsu**

The two authors accidently met again only a month later during a book convention. Jiraiya had recognized Hisana while she wandered between the stands, hauling a giant stack of newly acquired books, the stack nearly prevented her from seeing the path.

"Well well what do we have here? Hello there gorgeous!" Jiraiya's voice rumbled into Hisana's ear.

Said black haired woman nearly jumped out of her skin.

"JIRAIYA! What the,… don't do that! I nearly dropped the books!" Hisana complained while she shifted her burden from one hand to the other.

With a quick movement Jiraiya had freed Hisana from most of her books, carrying them like it was nothing.

Said Sannin asked incredulous "Why don't you seal the books and be done with it?"

"Seal? You mean into a scroll like those jutsus you talked about? Jiraiya! Hello! Remember who you are talking to! I'm civilian I have no idea how to seal anything." Hisana answered while she rolled her eyes. "Although that would be really useful. I always have to send my books back home via caravan or messenger hawk and it gets exhausting after a while!"

"Well why don't you learn it then?"

"Beca… wait what? I thought this is a ninja thing and civilians can't learn."

"It's not that civilians can't learn, it's more the fact that you have to learn how to control your chakra flow to activate them and most of you civilians are simply too lazy for that."

"Show me." Hisana demanded.

Hisana had to admit that she was annoyed that such a simple solution to her book problems had been before her nose the whole time.

Jiraiya snorted and warned her "Okay, but don't get frustrated if it doesn't work the first few times. You'll need practice."

And so they spent the rest of the 2 week convention with Jiraiya teaching her the basics of the sealing arts as well as how to access and use her chakra to activate and deactivate said seals.

The white haired shinobi was quiet impressed with how quick Hisana picked up the basic rules and had a grasp on the material, she even made her seal react slightly after her 4th try, something that he had never seen before. Her rapid success made him suspicious at first but then he realized that she just used her analytical mind and quick comprehension like she did on anything else he relaxed a bit and gave her the benefit of the doubt.

It was really quite fascinating for Jiraiya to see how she worked the functions of those basic seals out with a series of trial and error. In the end it took her only 10 days to make her first seal work, it was quite astonishing; it took some ninjas weeks if not months to work out.  
Her only major setback at this art was the fact that she was new to channeling chakra and could only make the seals with the lowest chakra usage work and frankly he doubted that she would ever be able to advance over Chunin level seals. A pity. Hisana would have probably made a fine Fuinjutsu master if somebody had trained her from young age .Now as an adult her chances were pretty slim if not downright nonexistent.

Hisana was quite content with this useful skill she had acquired in those two weeks. She would continue to experiment with the different Fuinjutsus and compare them to Rune Magic. Why hadn't she thought about this before? Of course the people here had to have adapted the Rune language to a more useable concept for them!  
This skill would solve a lot of her problems concerning carrying a large amount of objects on her person, like she had done before as witch.

So the next time she visited Bird Country she dissolved the renting contract with her landlord and sealed her books and other belongings in three scrolls with a nearly 20 meters length. The special scrolls had been quite expensive but were so worth it that she was now able to simplify her travelling.

It also eased her mind to know that her most precious belongings (books) as well as her wealth was on hand and could be appropriated like she wanted without long trips to get it out of her hideaways.

The blood security seals were another godsend to Hisana. As soon as she had found out about that particular concept she had practiced it so often that she felt like she could draw the seal in her sleep.  
This particular seal made the scrolls nearly completely thief proof because without the right blood they couldn't be opened and were so useless to the thief.

It took months until she saw Jiraiya again, both had been too busy with their own business to be able to do anything then write the occasional letter.  
When she finally saw Jiraiya again she asked him which other books he would recommend for individual Fuinjutsu studies. This seemed to have made her fellow writer a lot more cautious around her for the next few days until he had to have decided that she wasn't a threat or had ulterior motives and relaxed again around her.

Jiraiya was a surprisingly good teacher, even if he only gave her nudges in this direction or that. It helped a lot to further her grasp on the concept of the sealing arts, even if she would never be able to become a master. Jiraiya had informed her regretfully that her chakra capability was too small for that.

The white haired Sannin had really seemed concerned about her reaction to that. But Hisana just winked him away. The knowledge that she still could read and understand the more complicated Fuinjutsus was enough for her. She didn't need to attempt the, to be honest, giant and bat shit insane sealing arcs to feel the satisfaction of having something accomplished.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 **

**A year later**

Hisana had enjoyed her travelling for quite some time now, she had seen parts of Earth Country, Tea Country, Fire Country and soon she would visit some of the smaller Countries before she crossed over to Suna.  
Her publisher had wanted to organize a safe journey for her, now that her books became more and more popular and he made a lot of money through her. But Hisana had vehemently declined, she enjoyed the spontaneity of deciding from one moment to the other to change directions or stay longer in one place.

The black haired and brown eyed woman loved her new occupation of being a writer. She had decided to concentrate on children books and fictional novel. She rewrote the already published stories of her world to fit into the Elemental Country culture and adapted the ones with a hidden message to spread her own believes while keeping it subtle.  
The black haired civilian had a lot more fun than she thought she would have when she decided to make writing books her career.  
She even started on writing he own, original series between the adapted versions. To her delight they were just as popular as her plagiarized stories.

To speed up the publishing process Hisana now sent the finished chapters per Hawk messengers. Said birds were stationed in every bigger town and would transport messages or documents for a small fee between the biggest cities. To be able to receive updates about her book selling's and also to get the fan mail forwarded, Hisana always included her next bigger destination as a forwarding point for her publisher, this worked surprisingly good for both of them.

The sorting of said fan mail had started to take a big percentage of her time, because she felt the need to read every letter and write at least a short reply or thank you note.  
This had led to her developing a minor circle of pen pals; the majority of them had picked up on the hidden messages in the books. And Hisana enjoyed since than political and ethical debates with educated people around the Elemental Countries.  
To her consternation nearly all of them were male, she had only two female conversationalists that were as political savvy as the rest of their male counterparts.

And so Hisana was sitting in the tea shop of a border town of Fire Country and read through the letters that she had received only the day before.  
Sighing she rubbed her eyes, a pressure headache had been building since this morning and she was only a loud noise away of just abandoning the letters and hiding under her bed covers to just sleep the day away.

When she reached for her next later she stopped short, this one was a lot thicker than the other generic ones.  
Slightly paranoid from her encounter with Bubotuber puss during her Hogwarts years she moved the envelope as far away from her face as possible and slit it open.  
Inside it were two written sheets and a couple of sketches.

Suddenly Hisana wasn't so tired anymore and the headache was slowly receding, it was from Jiraiya. That old pervert had held his word and had written her more or less regularly since there meeting, it wasn't uncommon to receive one or two letters a month, often accompanied by more or less perverted sketches.

The two also had started to meet up regularly every 3 to 4 months. In the first two days they would either drink themselves stupid or complain about the publicists before their conversation turned to much more pleasant topics. Like the different travel routes they took or the latest political faux-pas of the nobles.

Concerning the nobles the white haired Konoha shinobi had a rather dangerous vice. He had this bad habit of including the dirty laundry of the Elemental countries nobles into his books.  
Those were of course hidden and nearly made unrecognizable, but they were still there for everybody to read about.  
If that ever came to the light it could mean Jiraiya's death. After all the nobles didn't like to be made fool off.

It took Hisana only two chapters into his newest book to cotton on to the older author, since then she sent him gossip about the nobles whenever possible.  
It was just to amusing to see potential epic black mail turn up in a surprisingly good written porn book without the masses realizing it.  
Hisana and Jiraiya also had started a habit of proof reading the work of the other after their third meeting. Surprisingly enough a second opinion helped them improve their writing styles and solve their writing blockades even though the two were in completely different genres.

_Dear Magnificent view,_

She snorted, he couldn't let go of that could he? In the time they had spent together it had become a sort of ritual.  
He badgered her about drawing her and using her in his books and she showed him exactly what she thought of that idea when she pulled at his ear and long hair more or less gently.

_it has come to my attention that you are participating in the book convention in three months in Fang Country, what a coincidence, so will I! _

Tze coincidence, that word didn't exist in Jiraiya's vocabulary, he had arranged for this!  
Hisana was relatively sure that there hadn't been an Erotica book exhibit planned.  
What irked her was how the hell he always knew where her manager was sending her. After all she had only got the notice about the convention the day before!

_Want to meet up? Maybe in the hot springs of the Maruno spa resort? I always find my inspiration stimulated when I visit said resort! And maybe I can entice you to become the new star of my latest novel? _

In his dreams!

_Your travel guide has been very helpful my dear, I look forward to more!_

Hisana was glad that he liked it. Between her books the brown eyed young woman had started to assemble all her notes about the different Elemental country travel paths in a travel guide. This book had been sent along her last letter to the white haired shinobi and she had been anxious about his critic.  
Somehow the perverted shinobi had managed to make Hisana care about his opinion, that sneaky bastard!

_Concerning travelling, I happen to be in the north of Fire country at the moment and I found this lovely place called,…_

_Yours Jiraiya_

Finished with reading the letter the female author contemplated over the information.  
Well at least Hisana could be sure that the book convention wouldn't be boring. Any convention involving Jiraiya could be anything between slightly amusing to downright hilarious!

After finishing with his description of the landscape and spa scape of the northern Fire country a second time she noticed the changed address on the bottom of the letter.  
As always Jiraiya had sent her a new forwarding point. Oh well, she knew he was a ninja and a particular famous one so it made only sense to change address regularly.  
Coming to the last few pages she took the drawings into her hands…

That pervert, he had peaked at her again! Hisana couldn't help herself but laugh.  
On every page she was drawn more or less exaggerated. Seriously she wasn't sure if some of these drawings would even be able to walk with the amount of cleavage weightening them down.  
That knucklehead, childish as always, seriously!

She took the sketches in one more time, Jiraiya was talented there was no doubt about it. Even if he exaggerated too much, his comments to each picture were hilarious!  
Throwing those away would be a waste, so she folded them and put them and the letter in a special scroll dedicated to Jiraiya's and her letter conversation.

Now what to write as an answer?

**Jiraiya** **Interlude**

Finally home! That was the only thought Jiraiya had when he entered the gates of Konoha and made his way to the Hokage tower to tell his teacher that he was back and leave the package of intel to be evaluated by the T&I.  
Anything else would have to wait until tomorrow, he had made a grueling pace to reach Konoha and deliver this vital information and now the only thing that he wanted to do was sleep!

The next morning he was almost chipper after sleeping for 12 hours straight. Jiraiya made his way to the Hokage tower with only a quick stop at the newly upgraded public bath. There he scouted for new vantage points to catch glances of the female population of Konoha while they were bathing.

After arriving at his old teacher's office he gave a more detailed report from the short version yesterday in front of Nara Shikaku, the Jounin commander, Yamanaka Inoichi, head of the intel division and Morino Ibiki, their torture specialist. After that he covertly handed over the newest volume of Icha Icha to the Hokage, after all his sensei was an avid reader.

Following their discussion of the more pressing matters, Sarutobi asked him with a grave and concerned voice if he could make sense of one of the letters of his informants. The T&I department had been trying to decode that particular letter for more than 3 weeks and couldn't make heads or tails out of it.

Some of the more driven members were close to a mental break down because the letter was eating up all their free time.  
Slightly concerned Jiraiya asked for said letter to take a look himself but as soon as he saw the elegant script he burst out in booming laughers.

Yamanaka Inoichi was slightly miffed, what was so funny? His people had been working day and night to make sense of it and Jiraiya was laughing?

Calming down to sniggers Jiraiya grinned at the shinobi in the room and said "Ah well, this is no report. This is the answer from a very dear acquaintance of mine; I must have given her the wrong address."

The ninjas in the room sweet dropped. Inoichi who had practically learned the letter by heart blushed slightly and coughed into his hand.

Still grinning Jiraiya read through the letter.

_Dear Peeping tom,  
do I even want to know how you found out about my schedule? Again? No wait don't answer that. _

_The north of Fire sounds beautiful. By the way you describe that particular landscape I take you have been visiting often. Give me a recommendation where I can hide from my manager, the old fart is driving me crazy again.  
As soon as that thing in Fang is over I'm going on an extended vacation. What do you say, do you have time to visit or will you have to gather 'ahem' IMPORTANT information in a resort? ;)_

_Concerning the drawings, …haha… can those "improved" me's even walk straight? Because I kind of doubt that! And as always the answer to your question is NO.  
Seriously do you have any idea what my Torture expert of a publicist would do to me if somebody recognized me in your books?  
After that I would have to seek refuge on an island in Water Country or something similar. So don't even think about it!_

_Ugh and you were right, Kusa was damn boring, everybody was so stern and frankly the Daimyo is a dick! I'm so glad that I'm back in Taki! _

_By the way how is that book coming along, still in a writer block? Just a hint, in Tea there is the opening of the biggest spa resort of the country in 3 weeks, maybe worth checking out. Oh and I expect a copy of that book! After that stuck up Daimyo I need something to amuse myself._

_Yours Hisana_

Smiling slightly Jiraiya looked up, his sensei was watching like a hawk.

Than the old Hokage coughed and asked "A fellow writer, maybe even in the same genre as you?"

Jiraiya's smile became even wider "Sadly no, funnily enough she writes children's books most of the time, but she proofreads my work when we meet up and gives me some hints! She is very talented for her age!"

"Her age?" now Sarutobi's left eyebrow wandered upwards.

With a loud laugh Jiraiya looked back at the letter and then said "Yes she is only 23 after all!"

"WHAT? Jiraiya-sama are you sure that she isn't somebody sent to become close to,…" with a hand wave Jiraiya interrupted Inoichi's sentence.

"No she isn't, I've tested her chakra network, before I showed her some sealing tricks. She had never used her chakra before, her channels were completely without tears and of course I had her background checked after we met for the first time."

Now Sarutobi glanced worriedly at his student "Now Jiraiya maybe Inoichi is right, she doesn't have to be a ninja to be a spy." Sighing annoyed Jiraiya and sent a wordless apology to Hisana.

"Her name is Yamaguchi Hisana, 23. She is the only daughter of a wealthy merchant, deceased, and lived in Bird Country until she was 19. From what I have found out she had a pretty thorough education during her childhood and was engaged to be married when she turned twenty to the local blacksmith son. Shortly after she turned 19 a rock slide took out the complete village with the exception of initial three survivors. They were brought to the neighboring village for medical attention, Hisana was the only one that survived.  
After her recovery she was taken in by a business partner of her father's who brought her to the capital where she did a blood test to be recognized as heiress. Apparently her father was very paranoid. The business was sold and Hisana began to travel and until today she never stopped."

Sarutobi nodded and asked "How did you two meet, I mean you two don't seem to travel in the same circles from what you told me until now."

Now Jiraiya coughed "Uh, well you see,… I was researching in Fuku Gai when she entered the hot springs and well I may have drawn her attention…"

"And she screamed and hit you?" Ibiki dead panned.

"No, or I wouldn't have found her so interesting. No she stood up and flashed me."

The eyes of his fellow shinobi popped out at that sentence and Jiraiya couldn't help but grin salacious before he continued.

"She told me later that she had had a bad day and didn't have the patience left to deal with an idiot." At that Jiraiya scratched his head while he grinned to himself, her answer had remembered her a lot of Tsunade at that time.

"And what happened then?" Shikaku asked interested, personally for himself this would have been too troublesome.

",… well I passed out and after I woke up she had already left. I met her later that evening again when she entered the soba bar I sat in and asked me how the view was… she is quite an interesting one, not boring like other civilian women!"

Now all men in the room were more or less amused, they could understand why such a meeting had endeared Hisana to Jiraiya.

"Well, Inoichi I still want you to take a look at her, but I don't think that she is an immediate threat, if she is even one, but you can't be too careful. Thank you for coming. Dismissed." The Hokage said before the shinobi left his office.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Publicists are annoying.

To this conclusion Hisana had came only a week after signing the contract years ago and so far it hadn't changed. In the coming weeks her contract would run out and she had been hounded to renew the piece of paper that would bind her soul for another 2- 10 years.  
To be honest Hisana was seriously thinking about not extending it.

In her short time as author she had written two series of children books, each one of them already three books strong. As well as two fantasy novels and a collection of short child friendly stories. The collection as well as one of the fantasy novels were of her own creation and had been a lot of work.

Hisana hadn't known what was normal for a writer to produce per year and her publicist had never given her any inclination how well she had done until Jiraiya had pulled the wool away from her eyes.  
It wasn't normal to write that many books in this few years, Jiraiya had also advised to slow down and pace herself or she could easily risk a burn out.

Doing exactly that Hisana wrote a polite but firm letter to the publisher that she would take at least a year long time out from writing and would focus just on herself. She promised that she would take him into consideration when she continued her writing career but kept the rest of her inclinations vague.  
After sending the letter via hawker messenger she also contacted her lawyer in Bird country and informed him about her decision and that he should take care of the legal repercussions.

Having finally dealt with the situation Hisana felt a lot more relaxed while she wandered through the Land of Lighting. This time, on Jiraiya's urging, she had acquiesced and hired a Kumo team to lead her through the country and to Kumogakure.  
Thanks to her popularity as an author it was easily granted. The chunin team remained polite but distant all four weeks long and while Hisana couldn't complain she felt slightly disappointed.

In Kumogakure Hisana purchased several paintings of the picturesque Mountain View as well some very interesting books and scrolls. She refrained from her normal slightly shadier book deals with the local black market because she knew that she was too much under scrutiny of the ninjas to get away with it.

After leaving Lighting Country Hisana was unsure what to do next, normally something or another would have caught her fancy by then and she would have made her way in this or that direction but this time she had an uneasy feeling.

Her gut told her something was going to happen and if there was something she had learned throughout her life it was to trust those feelings.  
Hisana noticed that more often than not the hair on her neck started to rise, which was a sure sign that somebody was watching her. Without any concrete idea of what was going to happen she did the only thing she thought that would maybe help her sort through those warn signals.  
She wrote a letter to Jiraiya explaining her uneasy feelings and how she felt like she was being followed and that she would make her way to Fuku Gai, it was in Fire Country and the likelihood that Jiraiya was in his home country was higher than anything else she could come up with. After sending this message with an emergency hawk in direction of Konoha Hisana felt slightly better.

The following day she then informed her hotel that she wanted to join the next caravan in direction of Fuku Gai. As soon as she was on the road the bad feeling became even worse and awakened long suppressed battle instincts in her. Now Hisana was cursing herself for never taking up any type of self defense and being utterly helpless in such a situation.

Three days away from Fuku Gai Hisana's worst fears became reality.  
The caravan was attacked; the civilians around her were slaughtered and the last thing she could remember was a dull pain on the side of her neck before everything went black.

The black haired 24 year old author awoke an undefined number of hours later, shackled at her hands in a shed like room and with a sore cheek.  
The following days were some of the most daunting in Hisana's life, even during the Horcrux hunt Hermione hadn't felt so helpless and exposed. Still the black haired woman tried not to lose hope, after all she had informed Jiraiya via letter about her feelings and the ninja had never ridiculed her about her gut feeling. Quite the contrary in fact, he had often remarked how astute her assessments of various mutual acquaintances were and had taken her instincts seriously. Of course most of those so called feelings were carefully down toned versions of what she caught from her surface skims.

The kidnappers had her blindfolded during the time they moved between places and only let her take it off when she was secured in one hideout or the other.  
The men that came and went from her rooms didn't touch her thankfully, but they were frightening her enough with their hungry gazes and vulgar gestures. This uncertainty nearly drove her crazy. Thankfully their leader, a missing nin from Ame, had an iron control over his underlings, she was not to be touched.

As thankful Hisana was about this fact it made her curious about his reasons.  
She received her answer during the night of the third day when they were using a cave to keep her imprisoned; she couldn't see anything because of the fact that she was behind a natural formed corner but because of the lack of doors she could still listen.

She overheard two of her guards speculating why their employer from Bird Country wanted her so completely unharmed and untouched.  
To be honest this didn't help her nerves one bit. She spent the night restless while she frantically went through the list of men who could possibly want her that badly to kidnap her and for what purpose.

Her imprisonment ended abruptly on the fourth day after the caravan massacre. Hisana awoke when she heard the shout and screams, both frightened and angry outside her.  
A few uncertain moments later a familiar figure brought tears to her eyes, in front of her stood Jiraiya.

The shinobi had a grim and uncommonly serious expression on his face when he slowly kneeled in front of her and took her hands into his bigger ones. Hisana just watched him as he carefully opened the shackles with a senbon needle. When the metal finally fell to the ground, he hesitantly drew nearer before he carefully scooped her up.  
Hisana couldn't help but let out a relieved sob before she buried herself in his broad chest, her hands anchored themselves reflexively in his haori.

Jiraiya carried her outside into the nearly blinding sunshine and slowly put Hisana on her feet while still keeping a protective hold on her small frame. In the meadow in front of them was a group of Konoha ninja that was finishing hogtying the surviving few of her kidnappers, from the once nearly 30 men strong gang were only 4 still alive, the leader amongst them.  
Hisana tried not to gag while she turned her head once more into Jiraiya's chest it had been a long time since Hermione had seen such carnage and her new persona had never seen it before.

A woman detached herself from the ninja team and drew closer to them. Hisana instantly recognized her as medic nin thanks to her white skirt and big pouches along her belt. The female author frowned slightly when the woman came to a stop in front of her and gently asked her if she would allow her to examine her.  
Then she suddenly understood why Jiraiya had acted so uncertain and careful with her before, it had confused her because Jiraiya had never hesitated before to hug her.

She turned her head so that both of them could understand her and said "It's fine. The only things I received are some abrasives and my sore wrists. They didn't touch me if that's what you want to know. Their leader, that Ame missing nin over there, had them pretty good under control..."

Behind her Jiraiya exhaled slightly louder than normal and the unconscious tension of the thirty something kunoichi in front of her fell away. The blue grayish haired woman ran her green palmed hands over Hisana's wrists as well as the bruised cheek and joined, after finishing her job, her comrades once more.

"It was lucky that I was in Konoha when your message arrived or else it could have taken weeks for me to find out. Still when I reached Fuku Gai the caravan had already been attacked; there were only a few survivors." The more relaxed Jiraiya told her while he offered her a water bottle.

Thankful Hisana accepted and after a hasty gulp she answered. "I didn't know what else to do. The moment the Kumo ninja left me at the boarder I felt eyes on me. I kept in as big groups as possible and the moment I arrived in a bigger city I messaged you, I was pretty certain that you were in Konoha, but the caravan to Konoha had already left at that time. Fuku Gai was as close as I could get with a big caravan until you had received my letter. I knew you wouldn't brush my concerns aside. God I felt so completely helpless the last few days."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Jiraiya looked strangely helpless while he stood beside Hisana.

Said female just shook her head "It's okay, to be honest it's a miracle that something like this didn't happen before, after all I travelled alone most of the time. I'm just a bit shaken up, don't mind me." The last part was said with a slightly shaky smile.

Jiraiya looked far away while he stared at the mountain range behind us before he continued to speak.

"I… when I heard about the caravan massacre I thought my heart stopped for a moment. It's one thing to get the news about comrades that were injured or killed during missions but at least I know that they have a fighting chance. With you being a civilian it's a complete other can of worms."

Hisana's eyes widened slightly at this admission before they became softer "Don't worry, if there is something I have learned from this, is that I will try to travel in shinobi protected caravans from now on. Although to be honest after that scare I will probably drastically reduce my travelling for the near future."

Jiraiya just nodded beside her while they slowly made their way to the other Konoha ninja.

"So you will return to Bird Country." The white haired Sannin stated with a careful blank face.

"Oh hell no, no way!" cam the vehement answer from Hisana before she continued, "It was somebody from Bird country that I have to thank for the kidnapping. I yesterday overheard some of the men talking about how that 'old coot' from Bird Country wanted me unharmed and that's why they weren't allowed to touch me. So no, I will probably either stay in Fire Country or Tea Country, whatever tickles my fancy more."

Jiraiya's right eyebrow wandered up at that information but he just nodded.

"You had a lot of luck Hisana. That group of thugs has been making trouble for quite some time now and that's why the chunin team was already here and tracking them when I arrived, it sped the process of finding you a lot up. The administration back in Konoha will probably want your statement. Do you think you can make a detour or do you have to be somewhere?"

"No I have all the time in the world, I just dissolved my contract with my publisher, I took your words to heart and I'm taking some time away from writing."

Jiraiya smiled at that and it seemed as if his normal happy go lucky attitude was back. After their talk they made their way over to the rest of the ninja team.

"Alright guys, this is Yamaguchi Hisana, a fellow author colleague of mine. She will accompany us to Konoha to make her statement." The oldest ninja announced.

"Yamaguchi Hisana…, the children books author?" came the hesitant question of the blonde ninja to the left.

"Yes that's me. It's very nice to meet you all." Hisana confirmed and greeted the ninja with a slight bow.

Said ninja's eyes went wide before he coughed and then asked slightly embarrassed "Would it be too much to ask for an autograph? My daughter is an avid fan of your books."

"Of course, I would love too. How old is your daughter?" Hisana asked delighted.

The young woman was glad for the distraction. The Chunin kept her occupied while Jiraiya vanished with another shinobi into the woods.

Half an hour later they reappeared with a horse carriage and on top of it was her luggage. Hisana couldn't help but sigh in relief and wandered over to the wagon.

"Are this your things? We found them close to the camp of the thugs." The ninja accompanying Jiraiya asked.

"Yes, and it doesn't look like anything is missing."

With a quick step she was on top of the carriage and examined her travel box. With some chakra to the side of the box she opened it up and checked for any visible damage. Relieved that she couldn't find any she flinched when suddenly Jiraiya appeared beside her. He threw the giant scrolls inside the box a curious look.

"Are those seal scrolls? Hisana what are you lugging with you around that would take up so much space?" he asked incredulous.

"Why, my book collection of course." Hisana deadpanned while she also thought about the ready gold supply she had hidden within them.

As an answer Jiraiya choked, the ninja team around them just threw them confused looks.

"Are you saying you carry your 30.000 book strong library with you wherever you go?"

The Chunins eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

"Hhmpf, my library wouldn't be of use if I couldn't access it and no not all books are here, only about ¾ of them… What did you think I would do when I asked you all that questions about mass sealing books." Hisana nearly pouted, why was this so unbelievable?

Jiraiya broke out in incredulous belly laughers before he shook his head and sighed. "When you approached me about the possibility I thought you were talking hypothetically."

The travelling box was closed once more and Jiraiya attached it with a strange Fuinjutsu that she had never seen on his own backpack. He then gathered her into his arms while the other Chunins slung the unconscious criminals over their shoulders.

Hisana had to bite her lip to keep from shrieking the first 5 minutes. She hated heights, as both Hisana and Hermione she had absolutely abhorred them, but she wouldn't give her weakness in front of strangers away. With Jiraiya alone she would have no problems, but the unknown Chunin team made her bear this situation.

20 minutes into travelling at this speed, Hisana finally found a way to relax and enjoy it. She kept her eyes firmly on her surroundings and never once looked down on the forest floor.

The journey to Konoha went by relative quickly, in two days they had reached the valley in which Konohagakure had been built and in the morning of the third day they arrived at the giant gates with the Leaf symbol.

During the trip Hisana had noted how the trees had steadily increased in height until they were nearly 5 times the size of normal trees. She couldn't help but marvel about this tremendous bout of evolution; even in the rainforest of the Amazonian you couldn't find such tall trees. This change of vegetation made her also more determined to keep her head straight in the treetops and never EVER look down.

At the main gate Hisana was quickly registered and after a quick goodbye to the Chunin team Hisana followed Jiraiya to the Hokage tower.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

On the way to the Hokage tower they had passed a lot of shinobis as well as civilians, most of them seem to know Jiraiya one way or the other because the looks varied from blatant hero worship, over respect to complete disdain from more than one woman.  
Secretly this amused Hisana immensely; it seemed as if more than one of the ladies had been used as inspiration by the white haired Sannin and were now taking offense about this.

Arriving at the tower they were quickly led up to the Hokage's office, Hisana noticed with interest the integrate architecture and confusing room layout. The black haired woman was sure that this had been done on purpose to make attacks and ambushes as hard as possible.

After Jiraiya had a quick word with the secretary the two of them were led into spacious half round office. Behind the desk sat an old and slightly fragile looking man with wrinkles.

In the beginning the black haired woman was reminded of the old Hogwarts headmaster but the moment she was close enough to look into the Hokage's eyes she rapidly changed her mind. Albus Dumbledore and Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't be more different.

Sarutobi's eyes were treacherous, they had a kind of grandfatherly twinkle just like Albus Dumbledore's had, but underneath was something cold, calculating and lethal that sent shivers down her back. Before her sat somebody very very dangerous, and now she also understood why this man, who had clearly long since passed his prime, still was in power in one of the biggest ninja villages of the Hidden Countries.

Hisana knew that she would have to be careful about searching the Hokage's thoughts, but now she understood the true danger that she had been exposed to. Should the old man even suspect her of some kind of deception she would be hopelessly at his mercy, even her friendship to Jiraiya wouldn't safe her from interrogation and her possible death. Still she had to give it a try, after all the known threat was infidently better then the unknown one.

Her careful controlled scan of his surface thoughts just further supported her first impression. The speed and complexity of the thought processes impressed Hisana immensely. In front of her was a man who could easily keep up with her own admittedly frightening mental capabilities.  
This scan also led to the fact that Hisana could finally relax a bit about her stay in this village. Shinobi villages always had made her nervous because of the fact that so many perceptive and paranoid people were watching her. She was realistic after all, if even one of them had the slightest suspicion about her false identity or her special abilities she would be snatched off the street faster then she could say Hogwarts' library. Ninja were too curious for their own good and had no qualms to just kidnap people.  
The fact that this was Jiraiya's hometown made her even more vary, she like the older man and would hate it to lose his friendship because she had to flee from overzealous ninja.  
Which would probably not work, after all her magic was gone and she was up against ninja, trained assassins that were faster, stronger and more cunning then herself.

Hisana had to forcefully call herself back to reality to not sink into the endless possibilities what they could do with her should she be discovered, after all it looked like she didn't have to worry at the moment.

The Hokage in front of her was trying to find evidence of her being a planted spy from another ninja village to spy on Jiraiya. From what she could gather from his thoughts he normally would have left this to the T&I squad of Konoha, but because Jiraiya was he student he oversaw this investigation personally.

Since the moment she had walked into the room he had begun to analyze her and finally concluded that while she was certainly unusual, she wasn't a trained spy. After this thought had taken over the main part of his forefront thoughts Hisana carefully extracted herself while she mulled over the information she just had received.

While Sarutobi certainly wasn't above manipulating her, he didn't have any malicious or harmful thoughts in reference to her personally and while he had begun to realize that she was a potentially stronger wild card then he had thought before, the old man at least didn't seem anything particular interesting in her that would call for her visiting the darker side of the shinobi forces.

All this thought processes happened in fraction of seconds so that when she came to a halt in front of the desk she had finished her first evaluation of the Hokage and could concentrate on what was happening around her.

While Hisana was sizing up the shinobi in front of her and calculating potential outcomes from the measure of intelligence she would show, said man in turn cataloged his findings and analyzed her in turn.

Sarutobi had to agree with Jiraiya; Yamaguchi Hisana was clearly not an average civilian woman. The way she held his gaze, his eyes that had intimidated older and more seasoned civilians or shinobi with their sharpness, it didn't seem to bother her. Quite the contrary in fact, the head of the Sarutobi clan noticed how she relaxed slightly after she seemingly had finished her assessment of him. To be honest Hiruzen felt amused, this young civilian woman had done something what a lot of shinobi didn't even dare to think about, she had openly assessed him and had seemingly deemed him worthy of her respect by the way she smiled and bowed slightly deeper than a woman of her stand would have to.

On the side of the room Jiraiya watched slightly apprehensive the meeting between Sarutobi and Hisana, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was witnessing a clash of intellectual titans.  
In the time since meeting Hisana Jiraiya had relatively quick realized that concerning mental capabilities Hisana far outranked him, her analytical abilities surprised and awed him every time again. He would go so far as call her a genius not unlike the members of the Nara clan and his own sensei were.  
While he listened to the exchange of pleasantries of his two closest relations he couldn't help the feeling that he was missing another conversation that he just didn't understand but was obvious to both of the interlocutors. Even with all his deception training and experience he was only able to pick up the general feeling of their conversation.

"Yamaguchi Hanare, I presume." _Jiraiya told me of you._

"Hai, Hokage-sama." _Is that so?_

Cheeky brat, the third Hokage couldn't help but think amused, oh she was very interesting alright. She didn't back off or froze in fear when verbally poked and prodded for more information, no she poked right back. She would make an interesting shogi partner.

"Jiraiya, why don't you give me your report." Sarutobi turned to his former student who looked slightly irritated at him and Hisana.

"… Yes well, when I arrived in Fuku Gai the caravan had already been attacked,…"

The patriarch of the Sarutobi clan watched closely the reaction of the woman in front of him while Jiraiya talked. She flinched at a few parts of the story and her eyes got a gleam as if she was somewhere else. No, it was irrevocably confirmed Yamaguchi Hisana was definitely no spy, he could give the all clear to Inoichi and Ibiki. Those two had been unable to find anything concrete on her other than her slightly questionable dealings with the black market concerning books. No a spy wouldn't have such a reaction to the report or would risk calling attention to herself with some dealings with the Black Market.  
Sarutobi was glad for that, he could see the affection Jiraiya seemed to hold for the younger woman, even if his white haired former student did do a good job at hiding it, he couldn't fool his old sensei. To be honest, Hiruzen was a bit confused, he could see the affection clearly, but the relationship between the two was still unclear to him, he would have to keep a closer eye on this.

"…, and that's why I brought her here to give her version of the happenings since the massacre of the caravan." Jiraiya ended.

The Hokage nodded while he innerly frowned. Giving a report in Konoha? That wasn't standard operation procedure, what was Jiraiya playing at?

While he carefully arranged his face he noticed the razor sharp gaze of the woman slightly behind Jiraiya, huh she had picked up on that? Oh she was good, very good. After all he had developed deception to an art. Sarutobi had needed this skill to survive in his career as ninja, and now as politician he had even more use for it. The civilian council and other village leaders would have eaten him alive if he hadn't had a perfect poker face throughout all those meetings.  
Either he was slipping in his old age or the woman in front of him had some of the best instincts he had ever encountered.

"Well I'm glad the kidnapping turned out alright for you Yamaguchi-san. I will inform one of the Chunins to take your statement and I would appreciate if you could make yourself available for more questions if the Interrogators turn up with something."

"Yes Hokage-sama. Before I forget it, I overheard two of the bandits discussing their employer; they talked about an older man from Bird Country that had commissioned my kidnapping." Hisana said firmly.

Was that irritation that Sarutobi picked up? The old man had to suppress his mirth, well well, someone was vexed. And if he could trust his gut feeling the woman in front of him would not let the perpetrator get away with this kidnapping. To be honest she reminded him a bit if Tsunade and Kushina, those two also always had a way to make their revenge even more terrifying.  
Now this should be amusing to see, he would have to keep a close eye on this situation.

"Well then, I wish you a nice stay in Konoha, I'm sure Jiraiya will take care of you." Sarutobi added at the end, he just couldn't help himself.

His humor must have shown through because the tiny answering smirk that he received from Hisana was telling. It seemed as if he wasn't the only one that had picked up on Jiraiya strange mother hen vibes.  
Really,… this was the head of Konoha's external spy network and he was acting like an overprotective father who feared for the virtue of his only daughter,… actually that didn't seem to be so far off. He would have to think his ideas over more thoroughly later, when he was not in the presence of this scary perceptive young woman.

Jiraiya and Hisana left the office after being dismissed. On the floor below a slightly caught off guard Chunin already waited for them, he wrote down Hisana's statement before the two left the tower and made their way to a hotel in the tourist section of Konoha.

After checking in and loading off her luggage, the two made their way to one of Jiraiya's favorite sushi restaurants in Konoha to talk and have some early lunch.  
After being seated and ordering drinks Hisana finally addressed what she had noticed in the Hokage tower.

"I didn't need to give my statement in Konoha did I?" Hisana asked in a wry tone.

"Not exactly.", came the slightly sheepish answer from Jiraiya, after a short embarrassed pause.

"You did this to finally get me to Konoha didn't you?"

Hisana became more and more amused, she didn't really mind that Jiraiya had manipulated her in this way; after all she knew that he didn't have any malicious thoughts concerning her.

"You have visited nearly every Shinobi village that exists in the Elementals and while you have crossed through Fire more than a handful times you never visited Konoha even once." Jiraiya said in a strange tone of voice.

"Jiraiya,… are you pouting?" Hisana asked in a delighted voice ",… you really are."

Clear and warm sounding laugher broke out of her while she nudged the Sannin across from her with her elbow.

"Well then, when are you giving me the grand tour of your Konoha?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Dead tired Hisana pealed her clothes off and stepped into the shower, it had been a very eventful day and she wasn't sure if she liked in which way her life seemed to head. Hisana shampooed her hair while she once more let the day pass in front of her inner eye.

After lunch they spent the next few hours with Jiraiya leading her through the village and pointing out places that had historical or personal significance. Jiraiya regaled her with stories of his old Genin teams, both his own team as well as his students. Hisana noticed the bittersweet mood the white haired Sannin was in while he talked and didn't interrupt him while he kept reminiscing about what he had clearly lost.  
Hisana herself was reminded of her life as Hermione and how she had lost so many good friends and comrades during the war. She knew that the loss would never fully go away, but now that she saw how Jiraiya could talk about the good times that he had experienced with his fallen comrades she did feel some hope that some time in the future she would also be able to think back on the good times without the overwhelming grief. She had already noticed that it wasn't a completely untouchable subject anymore.  
In the last year she had found herself more and more thinking about what Harry and Ron would say to this or that or how excited Neville would have been about the different plants all around her.

When Jiraiya's melancholic mood had passed, he was back at regaling her with hilarious stories about one ninja or the other. Hisana could only shake her head while she tried to catch her breath from all the laughing.  
If even a third of what Jiraiya had just told her was true she finally began to understand why almost everywhere in the Elemental Countries people sighed and started muttering about the eccentrics of the Fire country ninja.

In a nutshell, Hisana enjoyed herself immensely.

To be honest Konoha appealed to her the most of all the shinobi villages. It had a cheerful and open feeling to it and the stories just endeared it to her even more, some of the stories let her think about the Weasley twins as well as Luna, they would have fit right in.  
The fact that you could find parks all across the village along with strong massive trees that grew alongside the roads was the icing on the cake. It reminded Hisana on her memories of the small village her counterpart had grown up in as well as the Forbidden Forest and the Hogwarts grounds back in England and she felt instantly at home.

An hour before dinner time Jiraiya and Hisana were unexpectedly summoned back to the Hokage.  
When they arrived there Hisana couldn't help but sent a curious glance at the tall handsome blonde and the massive and slightly intimidating man with the scars on his face that awaited them alongside Sarutobi.

Jiraiya stiffened beside her and he looked from the two men to the Hokage who had come around his desk to stand closer to them. Hisana made the instinctive observation that the Hokage was only a few centimeters taller than her.

"Yamaguchi-san, these are Yamanaka Inoichi and Morino Ibiki, they have a few questions concerning the kidnapping." The Sandaime explained.

Disregarding Jiraiya's body language she gave a bow in the direction of the two men before she asked in a calm and collected voice.

"How may I help you shinobi-sans?"

"Yamaguchi-san are you familiar with the name Hondura Hiroshi? This man was the one that had ordered your kidnapping."

The black haired woman stiffened and her eyes became cold. That little worm!

"Hondura Hiroshi you say?" Hisana nearly bit out.

Beside her Jiraiya's eyebrows wandered into his hairline.

"Isn't that,…"

"Yes." The now furious black haired woman bit out before she took a deep breath and continued "If you would excuse me Hokage-sama, Yamanaka-san, Morino-san, I have to inform my lawyer. I will sue this bastard out of every Ryo he ever made!"

Hisana was already turning around when Jiraiya caught her by her arm.

"I don't think you should persecute him privately. If Konoha sends an official report it would go over a lot more smoothly." Jiraiya explained.

The white haired man noticed the signs that generally announced that somebody was going to regret it severely to have crossed Yamaguchi Hisana and had to suppress a grin, somebody was going down.

Still trying to calm herself down Hisana turned to the Hokage to gauge what the old man would think about this.

Said Sarutobi inclined his head and said, "This would be a safer way for getting your revenge Yamaguchi-san; two of the caught renegades are from your home country and if we include your kidnapping in the official report this Hondura wouldn't be able to buy himself out of the charges."

Hisana thought about this, it would mean less stressful paperwork for her and her lawyer. Seeing the clear advantage in this solution the black haired woman agreed, after all she could extract her revenge in other ways then suing him out of his wealth and discredit him in front of his peers.  
She thanked the Hokage and excused herself; she would have to think this over more thoroughly.

While she made her way back to the hotel, Jiraiya decided to stay a bit longer and discuss some other topics concerning Konoha. He promised Hisana that he would collect her the next morning to continue the tour to which she readily agreed.

When the men were alone once more Jiraiya started to chuckle again, all four men had seen the gears turning behind Hisana's eyes while she walked out of the office. The Sannin could nearly pity that foolish man, Hisana's wrath tended to be humiliating and painful for ones pride, she loved to play mind games after all.

He then explained to his fellow shinobi about the kidnapper, "Hondura was Hisana's publisher until 8 weeks ago when she refused to extend her contract with him. That man really has no idea what a can of worms he has just opened; Hisana is going to make his life as miserable as possible. I think it would be far kinder to just lock him up and throw the key away."

"Why would you say that? And didn't she just agree to let Konoha handle the situation?" Inoichi asked slightly irritated.

Nothing in the reports had ever pointed to Yamaguchi Hisana being that forceful, quite the opposite in fact, from what he had gathered from the reports he had believed that she had a cool temperament bordering on freezing.

"You haven't had regular contact with her like me. I know that Hisana comes off as aloof, nearly cool and that's also true in most instances. There isn't much that ignites her ire, but once you have pissed her off she has a downright sadistic streak. Believe me Ibiki; I'm sure you would have enjoyed some of the stuff she had pulled throughout the years, mind games are a personal favorite of hers. And concerning her interfering with Konoha, don't worry she is too smart to do that. She will let Konoha start the investigation and then after the sentence is decided she will extract her revenge."

The men in the Hokage's office thought over this new piece of information, Ibiki especially was now interested; he would have to find a way to get more information about Hisana's prior revenges.

The Hokage on the other hand just nodded to himself, what Jiraiya said seemed to fit to what he had gleaned off of his encounter with Yamaguchi-san. The woman seemed to have a weakness for mind games, puzzles and knowledge. The reports that he had received from Jiraiya painted a, maybe a bit biased, but still rather frightening picture of her mental capabilities.  
His innate curiosity and instincts urged him to keep her in Konoha so that he could figure her out.  
With the right amount of prompting and nudging they would maybe be able to make her loyal to Konoha. She would be an interesting asset to Konoha, be it through the popularity of her books that would bring tax income or the potential of her intelligence.  
After all the aptitude of intelligence could be bred, as the Nara clan and to a lesser extend the Hyuuga clan kept demonstrating. If even one of Yamaguchi-sans children inherited her mothers' mental capabilities it would pay off in the long run for the village.

After mulling this over the Hokage changed the topic to the latest political moves of the Tsuchikage and what that would mean for Konoha.

Meanwhile Hisana arrived in her hotel room where she sank on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Great, fantastic, she should have seen this coming. When in doubt hire thugs or ninja, seemed to be the concept of the Elemental countries.  
Sighing she tiredly rubbed her eyes; she should have known that Hondura wouldn't take her refusal standing like this. She was kicking herself for discounting him as annoying but harmless, even the smallest worm could become dangerous when he had the right amount of money.

Once again she would have to think her plans over, for too long she had handled things like she would have in her old life as Hermione. Back when she had magic at her disposal and could defend herself when needed.

She wasn't anymore; the kidnapping had finally driven this fact home.

She was a civilian, helpless against even the lowest Genin, and her status as known and wealthy Author made her an even bigger target.  
Now that she thought about it, her status as belonging to a publisher was probably what had kept others from hiring ninja to kidnap her and exploit her talent or wealth, but now that she was 'free' again, she was fair game to all of them.

Hisana was kicking herself over her own stupidity; she would have to find a way to discourage any ninja from trying to kidnap her and fast or she would have to constantly watch her back from now on.

Sighing and massaging her aching shoulders Hisana wandered into the bathroom to take a shower.  
Damn thoughts had given her a pressure headache.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey, I'm sorry for not updating sooner but at the moment I don't have a lot of time for anything but studying *sigh* in 4 weeks my last exam ends and after that I will have time again, so just to give you heads up.  
THANK YOU for more than a 100 reviews, wow you guys are awesome!  
Because a lot of you have asked about the pairing, no it won't be a JiraiyaxHisana, BUT I'm seriously considering writing a side story AFTER I have finished this one. :D

Thank you for continuing to stick with me!

**Chapter 8**

Hisana spent the rest of the evening in her room, ordering something to eat from the room service and kept brooding over the different possibilities that she had.

To be honest, one idea was more ridiculous than the other.  
The young woman sighed, normally she would have fun poking holes into schemes and scenarios but this; this was just getting ridiculous.

The only thing that seemed like an even half decent idea at the moment was joining a hidden village.

But with living in a hidden village came several draw backs that made the former witch grimace.  
Not only did the possibility of being caught up in a war become higher, she also wouldn't be able to come and go like she wanted.  
Quite the contrary in fact, she would be most likely carefully monitored by the intelligence division, at least for the first few years.  
And she didn't want to shine up on their radar for being in some way suspicious; she really could forgo the uncomfortable questions about her former life and transition into her new identity, the idea of something like this happening was enough to sent shivers down her back.  
And last but not least there was the fact that ninja were just too damn interesting for their own good. Even if they didn't drag her into their dark and dank dungeons, in one way or the other they would surely make her business theirs and drag her into things she didn't need or want, but probably would have too much fun with to just give up on.

Hisana couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped her; she had seen it with Jiraiya. The white haired Sannin had been just too interesting to stay away from, no matter how hard she tried to resist.

Sighing once again Hisana turned around and stared at the dark ceiling. There was no way around it, she would have to compromise if she didn't want to end up in a contract for live or worse in slavery, even if this meant that she would be more restricted in the future.  
Maybe Jiraiya would have some insight. His opinion about Konoha was of course clouded, but she didn't think that he would intentionally give her bad advice and a second opinion never hurt.  
After coming to this conclusion Hisana finally fell into a fitful sleep.

The next day Jiraiya waited for her as promised in the lobby. The white haired shinobi instantly picked up on Hisanas tiredness and slightly frustrated mood but didn't comment. The Sannin had learned that when she was like this nothing would lighten her mood until she had found a solution for herself.

The two breakfasted in a tea house before they enjoyed a leisurely walk through the busy morning streets. Jiraiya kept the tourist information to a bare minimum and let Hisana mostly to her own thoughts. He reassured himself that when she was finished with going over it she would ask if she wanted help or a second opinion.

The two authors were moving through a less populated area of Konoha and were leisurely strolling down a slightly shabby street when Hisana finally broke.

"I need your help." She stated simply without looking at Jiraiya directly.

Said ninja just hummed and nodded slightly with his head as an answer.

"I have been very, very naïve concerning my safety since I started my travels and now it came back to bite me in the ass."

Jiraiya snorted and just nodded, he himself felt a little bit guilty; because of Hisana's sturdy character he had treated her more like a ninja colleague of his than a nearly defenseless civilian. This had been a crass oversight on his part that had nearly led to a catastrophe for the younger woman.

"I'm thinking about the possibility of settling down in Konoha. A shinobi village would give me enough backing to stop most of the kidnapping attempts, as well as a ready supply on escorts to my book signings in different parts of the continent. On the other hand I would loath to lose my independence and become completely dependent on the benevolence of the village concerning my comings and goings. What do you think?"

Hisana's tone had been kept carefully neutral while she let her gaze wander over the old pavement and it's many cracks and holes.

Jiraiya was silent for a few moments while they continued down the road until he finally said, "You can probably guess that I would support the idea of you moving to Konoha whole heartily. Not only because this is my hometown and it would bring additional prestige and taxes to Konoha. Yes, your comings and goings would be restricted for the first few years but Konoha has a slightly more lax policy concerning its merchant and other travelling civilians than most other villages, it will be frustrating for a time, I won't deny this but I think the benefits out weight the drawbacks. There is also the fact that you would be safe here from the exploitation and heavy-handed attempts of the book industry. They have smelled blood now, and as soon as the news about the kidnapping attempt come out, you will have to be thrice damn as careful as before. Even if the first attempt failed, it would be too tempting for some of the more shady parts of the industry to have you in their grasp. I have to confess I didn't take the problem of your safety too seriously before, because I simply associated you more with my ninja colleagues and I never had to think about their safety during their downtime and between missions travel time… but you ARE a civilian, no matter how witty and shrewd you are,… damn it I should have thought about this earlier and brought it up to you."

The Sannins movements were to the end of his speech a lot more agitated than in the beginning and Hisana could nearly see the mental beating he was giving himself.

As an answer to his opinion Hisana snorted "Jiraiya, you now know me for quite some time. Do you really think I would have listened to your advice and just agreed with you limiting my travelling without arguing? Until something had happened I still would have continued to randomly move through the countries without protection. Silly ninja."

The last part was said in an affectionate tone while Hisana lightly bumped into his side, it was nice to know that she was important to her older friend. In some ways he reminded her of a crazy mix between Ron and Sirius.  
But really she wouldn't have taken his advice under serious consideration. She still had her inhibitions about moving to Konoha even though she had brought this up, but at least she knew that Jiraiya saw the danger level just as big as herself and that she probably wouldn't be able to evade settling down somewhere where ninja were close. Oh well no sense to cry over spilt milk, she would have to accept that from now on her comings and goings would be partly inhibited and get the stupid formalities out of the way, she had never been a fan of bureaucratic paperwork, no matter what her friends had thought about her bookworm tendencies.  
The black haired woman let Jiraiya talk a little bit more about the advantages of joining Konoha before Hisana interrupted him with a barely audible grumble.

"Okay, okay I get it, Konoha is awesome and there are more pros than cons for joining,... Well are you going to show me where I can file for citizenship and help me with the paperwork or will you continue to stand here for the rest of the day?"

Jiraiya looked at her with slightly bigger eyes; he hadn't expected her to give in so easily. At the last part of her sentence he had to suppress a laugher, it seemed as if his younger colleague was coming out of her dark mood.  
Mock offended he complained to her that she only associated with him because he was famous and saw him as a way to further her own fame and fortune and in this case to speed up the dratted paperwork.

Hisana's backhanded respond came only seconds later and nearly on autopilot; she just meant sardonically "Jiraiya I have to say I'm slightly disappointed, if you haven't picked up on this fact until now I may have overestimated your skills as ninja, maybe I would be better off at some other village."

Beside her the white haired Fuinjutsu master sputtered and choked, before he weakly started to protest her claims. Point to Hisana.  
While outwardly the ninja kept complaining, the war veteran was secretly pleased; it seemed as if the woman beside him was finally recovering from the kidnapping attempt and she was back to her normal sarcastic self.

Half an hour later Hisana cursed lightly under her breath, it was just like she had feared, the bureaucrats were everywhere the same, even her fleeing to another dimension didn't change that fact. As an answer to one simple question you got 15 different forms shoved at yourself, which you had to be filled out in triplicates and sometimes quintuplicates.  
At least she wasn't going through them alone; Jiraiya had grabbed the forms and the already slightly ticked Hisana and moved them to the nearby dango shop, where he introduced the younger author to his female teammates tried and tested remedy to combat paperwork.

And so it came that shortly before lunch a considerable more relaxed Hisana worked herself through her stack of forms while she sipped on her sake and listened to Jiraiya talk about how the different elite ninja that he had met throughout his career tried to avoid paperwork in the most outlandish ways possible, more or less successfully.

Hisana also observed that Tsunade's way of solving paperwork seemed to be quite popular in the Hidden Village in the Leaf. The waitress had not even batted an eyelash at her request and had only thrown a short glance at the stack of paperwork before she quickly returned with the ordered alcoholic beverage.  
Had they been in a civilian village she would have probably gotten disapproving glances and whispers behind her back.

Shortly after lunch Hisana handed over her paperwork and the clerical worker behind the desk promised an answer to her application in one to three work days.

The rest of the afternoon the two authors spent reading each other's work in one of the more private parks in Konoha.

**Interlude: Hondura Hiroshi**

Hondura Hiroshi was a typical 38 year old, slightly balding and overweight civilian of Bird country. He had been in the business for nearly 20 years and felt overconfident and underappreciated.  
Furthermore he was of the opinion that women were something to be seen and touched but not heard!

The publishing business was now in the third generation and he would be expected to marry a civilian woman from good stock who was at least 20 years his junior in the next few years and produce the 4th generation for his family business.  
They would have one child, a son to be exact, who would grow up just like him and take over the family business.  
Furthermore the moment Hiroshi had fulfilled his familial duties and created an heir, the overweight man would return to the brothels and geisha houses to enjoy himself with even younger females, just like his father and grandfather had done.

Or at least that was the plan, because at the moment said Hondura Hiroshi was cursing loudly in his study.  
His golden goose as he liked to call Yamaguchi Hisana, had decided to not expand her contract with him and this would lead him not only to lose his main income, no it would also make him the laughing stock of the whole publishing community.  
Yamaguchi Hisana was after all one of the bestselling authors of the time and to lose her as client meant that he had to have done something wrong! Which in turn would lead him to lose clients and prestige!

There was also the slightly dangerous problem that it would put him in a difficult position concerning the open loans that he hadn't paid back completely yet.

Hiroshi had a very very expensive weakness concerning beautiful women and gambling and with Yamaguchi bringing in more and more money it had only worsened.

The loss of her as client would also ruin his future plans of investing his money in the more shady side of the business. After all drugs were up and coming and investing in the big drug lords would give him revenue without having to lift a finger.

No he couldn't let this happen! He would have to find a way to get the rebellious woman back under his control!

Desperately trying to think of a solution, Hiroshi's gaze fell onto the letter of an old friend of his. Didn't Makoto have ties to some missing nin?


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Shimura Danzo was having a bad day.  
Not only had those fools on the council rejected his draft that would lead to further isolate the arrogant Uchiha, no that blasted prodigy brat of Fugaku was earning the respect of shinobi throughout the village and simultaneously increasing the fame of the Uchiha whenever Danzo was distracted by other pressing manners.  
It was downright frustrating and infuriating to have such talent and drive right in front of his nose and he couldn't mold and use the boy without bringing down the fury of Sarutobi and the Uchiha clan.  
Additionally the old war hawk had now to deal with a sudden hole in his ROOT forces. The mission in Kumo had gone awry and had cost him 23 of his most talented operatives. His acquaintances throughout the Elementals were now scrambling to find more or less legally replacements of similar talent for his organization.  
Hiruzen was a fool, leaving the situation concerning the Hyuuga and Kumo alone. The old shinobi sighed while he transferred the files of his dead tools in a special compartment of his desk, at least they had been able to seriously damage Kumo's research facilities concerning Konoha's bloodlines.

Tired and irate about the previous happenings Danzo turned to his official work, the immigration permits and made a rookie mistake that would bite him in the ass for the coming years. He skimmed the prepared applications for citizenship and the summary of their reasons why and randomly approved some of them without a second glance.  
Having completed his duty Danzo finally went to bed after a too long day.

The following day the approved applications were forwarded to the T&I division who scheduled the initial interviews with the future citizens.

Yamanaka Inoichi couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when he saw a particular name on the list of those who had made it through the picky election of the Elders.  
To be honest he had nearly done a double take when he saw the name of the Elder that had approved Hisana's application.  
Either Danzo had day dreamed while approving her permit or he hadn't realized her connection to Jiraiya yet. Shimura normally would have made her live harder on principle alone because she was connected to the white haired Sannin who had the best chances to inherit the title of Hokage after the Sandaime.  
With a final shrug the head of the Yamanaka clan flagged the file and handed it over to Ibiki who would personally take over Hisana's interview. After all the Sandaime himself was interested in this case.

The day after handing in her application Hisana was surprised by a Chunin level shinobi who waited in the lobby for her. At the time Hisana was alone; Jiraiya had been called away outside Konoha for something concerning his information network and Hisana had decided to use the day and explore Konoha on her own.  
The black haired woman was pretty sure that that wasn't a coincidence, at least not on Konoha's side.

The chunin from the Intelligence division informed her that initial application had been approved and that she had been scheduled for a few interviews on that day.

Shrugging her shoulders Hisana followed the ninja that introduced himself as Hijiri Shimon. The man hadshoulder length brown hair and seemed to be around her own age. After initially informing her about the interviews the shinobi had fallen silent while he guided her through Konoha's streets. Hisana could feel the subtle and assessing glances he gave her, but decided to ignore it.  
From what she could discern from his forethoughts this was just another routine job for him and he found her exceedingly pretty. The last thought brought a small smile to her face; it was very flattering even if he hadn't spoken it out loud.

The Chunin led her to an inconspicuous looking building with no sign or mark that it was used by the T&I division. Sensible, was the only thing that went through Hisana's mind.

The inside of the building was neutral, not friendly but also not terrifying to the beholder.  
Hisana was showed to a room with only a desk and two chairs as well as a giant mirror wall. Hisana had to smile wryly, how more cliché could an interrogation room be.

Knowing that she would be observed since the moment she had entered the building Hisana sent a curious look around the room before seemingly randomly sit down on one of the chairs at the table.  
Said table was parallel to the mirror front and would give the ninjas behind the mirror a side view of her figure and face.

Hisana didn't have to wait long, only a few minutes later a familiar person entered the room, looking completely unsurprised.

It seemed as if her interrogator would be no one else but Morino Ibiki… she should have known.

"Yamaguchi-san." Ibiki stated while he nodded his head and took the seat opposite of her.

Said black haired woman sent him a slightly amused smile and nodded in return "Morino-san."

"You are aware that as potential citizen you have to go through the mandatory interviews and background checks." Ibiki more stated than asked.

As an answer he only received a nod.

"Very well,… we will play an association game, I say a word and you will answer."

"Day?"

"Night."

"Sun?"

"Warm."

"Water?"

"Blue."

"Name?"

"Yamaguchi Hisana."

"Birthplace?"

"Yamamura in Taki no Kuni."

"Age?"

"24."

"Occupation?"

"Author, Collector."

"Taki no Kuni?"

"Country."

"Hokage?"

"Meddlesome."

"Secret?"

"Safe."

"Family?"

"Dead."

"Friendship?"

"Protect."

"Marriage?"

"Unneeded."

"Children?"

"Not now."

"Education?"

"Important."

"Knowledge?"

"Power."

"History?"

"Repeats itself."

"Kunai?"

"Ninja."

"Weapon?"

"Dangerous."

"Ninja?"

"Nosy."

"Jiraiya?"

"Friend, Colleague."

"Konoha?"

"Fire, Protection."

"Hondura Hiroshi?"

"Problem, Later."

"Treason?"

"Punishment."

"War?"

"Stubborn old men."

"Blood?"

"Red."

"Attack?"

"Defense."

"Book?"

"Relaxation."

"Writing?"

"Fun."

"Fuinjutsu?"

"Interesting."

"Taijutsu?"

"Fast."

"Ninjutsu?"

"Not enough information."

"Genjutsu?"

"Illusion."

"Future?"

"Unsure."

Ibiki nodded and wrote something down on the page he had with him before he continued with more detailed questions. Hisana was very glad that on the way to the interview she could prepare herself mentally and had slightly enhanced the Hisana part in herself.

"You think Knowledge is Power, why?"

"History and written down Knowledge can give you an edge against your opponent, furthermore how do we learn if not from the mistakes of the past?"

Ibiki grunted before he continued "What about 'History repeats itself?'"

At this point Hisana snorted "Let me give you an example, a rebel fraction assassinates an old lord because he exploits his people, the rebel fraction takes over as a government, the people are happy and it works for a time, then some of the former rebels get greedy because they are human and humans are fallible and start to exploit their people, a new rebel group pops up and collapse the whole government and not only the corrupt part and the circle begins anew. Case in point."

Ibiki just nods and gives his sheet another glance before he asked "Why do you think ninja are nosy?"

This time Hisana laughs a bit before she sends him a teasing glance, "If you weren't nosy you wouldn't be good ninja."

Ibiki noted down that she didn't answer his question only evaded.

"Your answer to war was stubborn old men, why is that so?"

"Morino-san I'm sure you have noticed that behind every war and dispute in the last 60 years always a too old, too proud and to greedy fool stood that desperately tried to hold onto his power and tried to stop with all his power the change that is coming. And when he finally notices that the change isn't stoppable, he prefers to damn all those around him with war and despair instead of handing over the reins to the next generation. Leading examples are Taki, Iwa, Kumo, Suna, Tea country etc."

Hisana's voice was just a tad too bitter when she talked about this topic, which confused Ibiki and made him slightly suspicious, after all nothing in her background pointed in the direction of her being negatively affected by one of those happenings.

"And Konoha?"

"Because I'm going to answer that,... but no at least the Sandaime knew it was his time and tried to hand the power over to the Yondaime and now, excuse me if I'm too bold but from what I have heard there is no suitable Hokage candidate waiting in the wings, with the exception of maybe Hatake-san or Jiraiya, and I am aware that Jiraiya is going to avoid receiving the title as much as he is able to."

Ibiki kept eye contact a little bit longer this time to further search for signs of her deceiving him. He didn't find anything conclusive.  
Still, the Sandaime would be very interested in the transcript of this interview. Hisana's opinion was a bit too bold for the general taste of the populace. The ninja who was copying down the dialog was nearly bristling from indignation; he could feel the agitated charka from the next room.  
But if he was honest with himself he had to admit that her thoughts were spot on and matched with his own, not that he would ever let her know that.

"Why is Fuinjutsu interesting for you?"

"I'm learning it at the moment more or less self taught with a few pointers from Jiraiya."

"And Ninjutsu?"

At this Hisana scolded "You ninja are too damn secretive about it. It's hard to try to learn even basic information about it without getting exceedingly questioned, let alone being able to create a system for it."

"So the lack of information is vexing to you." Ibiki said with a neutral face while he innerly laughed.

From what he had gathered till now Yamaguchi-san was a bit of a control freak who needed to know everything and to be denied information must be really frustrating to her.

As an answer Hisana only harrumphed and tapped slightly with her finger against her knee.  
Innerly Hisana snorted while she read Morino's thoughts, it was good to know that he was of the same opinion as herself, but it was nearly too easy to distract him from her near slip. She only had to overemphasize her thirst for knowledge and the bitterness in her voice from before was categorized as her being frustrated on an academic curiosity level.  
But to be honest without her legitimacy skills she would have never been able to pull this off, she would have to continue to be careful. The Yamanaka mind reading skills could instantly reveal her, so she had to watch out to not give those ninjas a reason to put her at the tender mercies of the Yamanaka clan members.

The last few questions of Morino went back into the general direction of the interview, why did she want to become a citizen of Konoha and how did she think she could contribute to the village.

After thoroughly answering the tall ninjas questions Hisana was told that she could expect her citizens papers in a few days, with the warning that Konoha had the right to revoke them at any time and after the first year she would be considered a permanent resident. After a quick goodbye she was dismissed from the deceptively normal looking building.

The interview had nearly taken the whole morning and the black haired woman was glad when she found a fast food stand. Ichiraku's ramen were really not bad and the former witch made a mental note to come back some time.


End file.
